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Decolonization

Marian Nicholas, Mi’Kmaq Water Protector on the Importance of Protection of Water for Future Generations

Marian Nicolas, (Mi’kmaq) has dedicated her life to being a Water protector. She is often found on the front lines protecting the Shubenacadie River from the Alton Gas Project. She learned the Water Ceremonies from Josephine Mandamin. While originally being from Eskasoni she has lived in Sipekne’katik First Nation for over 25 years. Spoken in Mi’Kmaq with English subtitles.

Sherri Mitchell – On the times we are living in, women and water and healing

Sherri Mitchell (Penobscot) is a lawyer, author, world-wide speaker, community organizer and inspiring person. She shares her thoughts on the times we are living in, women and water and healing and empowerment. She is also a member of Apaji-wla’Matulinej

Judy Googoo (Mi’Kmaq) a member of Apaji-wla’matulinej on traditional medicinal plants

Judy Googoo (Mi’Kmaq) shares her vast knowledge of medicine plants. Judy leads workshops on everything from plants, to hand drum making, tanning moose hides – everything connected to living on the land. She also is an artist and runs a craft shop in Wagmacook and a barber shop!

Christina Dunfield, on being an ally, Apaji-wla’matulinej

Christina Dunfield, MCC, speaks on her journey to becoming an ally with Indigenous people through the Peace and Friendship project. This project, for 13 years, has been bringing Indigenous people and settlers together for deep conversations, Ceremonies and teachings on Indigenous worldviews.

Cathy Gerrior (Inuit), a member of Apaji-wla’matulinej on finding your way back to your culture

Cathy Gerrior (Inuit) speaks on the intergenerational impacts of residential schools; her experience of being raised in a white community and finding her way home again. She talks about building bridges between non-natives and Indigenous people.

Indigenous Wisdom Provides Path for Positive Change

Sherri Mitchell, Penobscot, an Indigenous lawyer, writer and activist, has a new book, “Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change,” which explains her personal journey to activism and both how our societies have arrived at this time of grave threats and what we can do to create change. Some of our tasks are to recognize that colonization has not ended, the ways it manifests itself and how to begin the process of decolonization. We can do that, in part, by working to protect water sovereignty. Sherri talks about the mobilization at Standing Rock and the rise of Water Protectors. Then we speak with RaeLynn Cazelot, United Houmi and Pointe-au-Chien, who is a Water Protector working to stop the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP). The BBP is being built by Energy Transfer Partners, the same company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline in the Dakotas. Currently, Water Protectors are holding a week of action against the BBP in Louisiana.

Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change

by Sherri Mitchell

A narrative of Indigenous wisdom that provides a road map for the spirit and a compass of compassion for humanity

Drawing from ancestral knowledge, as well as her experience as an attorney and activist, Sherri Mitchell addresses some of the most crucial issues of our day, such as environmental protection and human rights. Sharing the gifts she has received from elders around the world, Mitchell urges us to decolonize our language and our stories. For those seeking change, this book offers a set of cultural values that will preserve our collective survival for future generations.

Miigam’agan on Women-Led

Miigam’agan, Righting Relations National Steering Committee Member and mi’kmaq clan mother from Esgenoôpetitj / Burnt Church New Brunswick, speaks about the forming of the Eastern Hub of Righting Relations through a women-led approach

Seeking Netukulimk

Kerry Prosper is a passionate fisher and Mi’kmaq elder, who is teaching his grandchildren how to exercise their treaty rights by fishing eels. But those rights come with sacred responsibilities to care for the land and waters of Mi’kma’ki. Seeking Netukulimk is a lyrical exploration of the traditional laws that govern fishing in the Mi’kmaq world, and some of the political battles that have been fought to defend them.

In Defence of Our Treaties

In Defense of our Treaties (2008) follows members of Bear River First Nation as they stand up to Canada’s Department of Fisheries (DFO), who is pressuring them to sell out their treaty rights for a ticket into the commercial fisheries. For the Mi’kmaq, fishing is a right that comes from the Creator, and is protected by the Treaties. In 1999, the Supreme Court recognized those rights, and DFO has since signed agreements with 32 of the 34 First Nations in the region. The deals offer money to buy into the commercial fisheries, as long as the Mi’kmaq fish under DFO’s jurisdiction. That’s not good enough for Bear River, one of two communities refusing to sign.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

by Peggy McIntosh

“I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks.”

Unsettling America: Decolonization in Theory and Practice

by George Ciccariello-Maher

Anticolonial theorists and revolutionaries have long turned to dialectical thought as a central weapon in their fight against oppressive structures and conditions. From the site Unsettling America, a network of autonomous groups and individuals dedicated to mental and territorial decolonization.

This Issue with Sherri Mitchell

Sherri Mitchell, a Native American lawyer from the Penobscot Nation in eastern Maine, talks about the legal and social pressures on her people as they struggle to maintain their traditions as stewards of their ancestors’ lands and waters.

Beyond Territorial Acknowledgements

by âpihtawikosisân

Territorial acknowledgements have become fairly common in urban, progressive spaces in Canada. An article on fully recognizing Indigenous homelands from the blogâpihtawikosisân.com– Law, language, life: A Plains Cree speaking Metis woman in Montreal.Visit Blog:âpihtawikosisân.com

A Healing Journey for Us All: Uncovering the Wounds of Empire

A Response of The United Church of Canada to May 26
A National Day of Healing and ReconciliationA Three Session Study

Canadian Timeline: A Brief History of Canada and the Residential School System

A 22-minute video, Canadian Timeline in Relation to Colonization, begins in 1491 with a map of the traditional territories, and gives a succinct timeline of wars, treaties, reports, acts, apologies, etc. until 2010 when the TRC began hearings. It was developed as an ‘orientation’ video for the Cariboo Chilcotin school district 27 in British Columbia.

Moment of Reckoning: Turning the Page on a Dark Chapter in our Shared History

This video is produced by the AFN and is an excellent resource, featuring former AFN National Chiefs Phil Fontaine and Shawn Atleo.

Canadian Journey in Restorative Justice

Archbishop Prendergast sent an invitation to the Archdiocese of Ottawa to join the Canadian Journey in Restorative Justice.

Reconciliation

Rebecca Tabobodung, a member of the Wasauksing First Nation (Parry Island, Ontario), is a poet, activist, and filmmaker. She lives in Toronto. This poem appears in A Healing Journey for Us All, United Church of Canada, page 11.